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December 28, 2012

As I am getting older and working (or rather studying) my way through life, I am often evaluating and re-evaluating whether or not I have succeeded in the goals and objectives I have set for myself. Time flies, and it often seems like I have been too busy and didn't have enough time (and discipline) to become who I wanted to be.

When we are young, we have a certain idea of what we want to be like as adults. At the time, it seemed like adulthood was ages away; we thought we had a great deal of time to suppress our bad habits and flaws, to work on developing certain qualities and become that ''ideal person'' we had in mind.

It turns out that our time is short, that our faults are persistent, and that virtue requires a lot of discipline and self-sacrifice.

Someone once told me:''Don't sacrifice what you want for what you want right now''

I can find two applications of this principle:

1. As a university student, it is sometimes very tempting to yield to the temptation of escaping my homework and readings in order to do more ''pleasant'' and ''entertaining'' things, such as wasting time on the internet, watching one of my favourite movies, etc.

It seems like a natural inclination to want to sacrifice what I want (an education) for what I want right now (leisure).

2. Paradoxically, what I want can become what I want right now in light of other priorities. Maybe the thing I want right now (an education, a career, traveling, for example) can become obstacles to what I want (the big picture for my life).

What exactly is the reason for our life? Do we live up to it? Or do we forget the big picture because we are focused on what we want right now?